A Writer Gambles: Rouge et Noir · July 10, 2008

Ever heard of a game called Rouge et Noir? It’s a card game, where the odds, stakes and winnings are yours to set. The sky is the limit—boom or bust. Appropriately, Rouge et Noir is featured in A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilke Collins. This short story is included in the anthology, The 50 Greatest Mysteries of All Time, edited by Otto Penzler. Take a fresh look at the Theory of Chances—and chill.

Rouge et Noir and the writer seem to share the same philosophy. Consciously or not, a writer agrees to roll the symbolic dice. The road to publication is rife with rejection, and the stakes, like the success, can hover at heady altitudes. Is this confidence madness or courage?

Well, are you a gambler? Risk requires courage and yes, a little madness, all calculated according to the Theory of Chances. It makes sense to a gambler and the writer. Rouge et Noir– Red and Black, Feast or Famine, the gambler and the writer breathe the same air of the noir.

Speaking of noir, my novel Satin Doll is with a publisher, as I write. Unforgettable, the memoir of St. Louis City Hospital, has been one of my more poignant writing experiences. It has dredged up personal memories from the seventies when my husband attended St. Louis University Medical School. Interestingly enough, an assortment of stories has come my way from likely and not so likely sources. It’s almost finished!

A special request for the City Hospital “veterans” out there. I know you’ve got some stories about the good old days. Would you like to share them? Tell us right here!

Finally, my podcast should be ready for listening soon. Please visit often. I’d love to hear from you.

— Claire Applewhite